Scottish Parliament

Written Answers

Tuesday 28 December 1999

Scottish Executive

Children

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what provision it has made to ensure consistency and quality of regulation between private and state nurseries.

Peter Peacock: The proposed Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care will regulate all day care for children, whoever the provider. We believe that this will provide consistency and quality of regulation not only between the private and public sectors but also across Scotland. We intend to introduce legislation to establish the Commission as soon as possible, and we issued a pre-legislative consultation document: Regulating Care and the Social Service Workforce on 23 December.

Employment

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what its estimates are as to how many jobs have (a) been lost and (b) not been created as a result of regulations, and what steps have been taken by it to assess any impact regulations have on the economy.

Henry McLeish: The Scottish Executive has not made any estimates of the impact of regulatory factors on either job loss or job creation decisions but it recognises that regulations can have implications for the competitiveness of business and the economy and is committed to minimising the burden on business. Any new Scottish legislation or regulation, and any consultation papers on regulatory proposals that have an impact on business, are required to be accompanied by a Regulatory Impact Assessment. This structured document shows the expected compliance cost to business, particularly small firms, set alongside the benefits of non-regulatory alternatives. No legislative or regulatory proposal that has an impact on business will proceed without a Regulatory Impact Assessment that clearly demonstrates the worth of the proposed regulation.

Europe

Ben Wallace (North-East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will be monitoring centrally the distribution of Objective 3 funding by geography and grant size.

Mr Jack McConnell: Yes. The Scottish Executive will monitor the new Objective 3 Programme in a number of ways, including the geographical distribution of the grant awards and the amounts of grant awarded to individual projects.

Justice

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the total cost was of the prosecution of Jim Sutherland of Carfraemill Lodge in respect of offences under the Beef Bones Regulations 1997 including all costs incurred until conclusion of the case on 7 December 1999.

Lord Hardie: It is not possible to calculate the total cost of this prosecution.

Local Government

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-2640 by Mr Frank McAveety on 2 December 1999, whether, given its responsibility for local government, it will seek from North Lanarkshire Council the details relating to the points raised in that question and, if not, why not and whether it will state by what mechanism members should seek such information.

Mr Frank McAveety: No. Local authorities are autonomous corporate bodies; and they have powers to appoint officers on such reasonable terms and conditions as they think fit and similarly to terminate contracts of employment. In doing so they are, of course, required to comply with employment law; and their accounts are subject to audit by the Accounts Commission; but they are not answerable to the Scottish Executive, except where statute specifically provides so.

Tourism

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-1912 by Henry McLeish on 25 October 1999, why a copy of the Executive summary of the report by Deloitte & Touche on the Ossian project has still not been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre and whether it will provide a full explanation as to the delay.

Henry McLeish: The report has taken longer to complete than the Scottish Tourist Board expected. They now believe that it will be available during the week beginning 20 December. As it will not now contain commercially sensitive information, I have asked the Chairman of the STB to place a copy of the full report in the Parliament’s Information Centre as soon as it becomes available.

Tourism

Bruce Crawford (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to increase the financial support available for Area Tourist Boards during the next financial year.

Henry McLeish: Area Tourist Boards are core funded by discretionary grant aid from the Scottish Tourist Board and from local authorities, by membership subscription and by income from commercial activities. They receive no direct funding from the Scottish Executive.